Abstract
ALEXANDER OF VILLEDIEU in Normandy was born at that town about 1170 ; at the time of his death at some unknown date, he was canon of a church at Avranches. As an educator of the young he adopted an original method. This consisted in reducing all rules to a metrical form which the pupil was required to commit to memory. A Latin grammar, the doctrinale of about 1199, had a great vogue and was followed by an encyclopaedic work, the ecclesiale, on the same metrical lines. The “Massa Compoti”, a work on the calendar, runs to 509 lines and dates from 1200. This is a passage (65-69) which has a familiar parallel in all languages:
Le Nombre d'Or:
Etude de Chronologie Technique suivie du Texte de la Massa Compoti d'Alexandre de Villedieu. Avec Traduction et Commentaire par W. E. Van Wijk. Pp. x + 158 + 11 plates. (La Haye: Martinus Nijhoff, 1936.) 10 florins.
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P., H. Le Nombre d'Or. Nature 142, 451–452 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142451a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142451a0
